When Rap Meets the Art World

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Fab 5 Freddy

Fab 5 Freddy was an influential street artist years before he became the host of Yo! MTV Raps, and a key early link between graffiti and the art world. In 1980, inspired by Andy Warhol, he painted a subway car with cartoon-style images of huge Campbell's soup cans. In 1981, along with legends Futura 2000 and Keith Haring, he helped curate the graffiti-centered exhibit "Beyond Words," which featured their art along with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Afrika Bambaataa and others, at the Mudd Club — perhaps the first time graffiti was shown in a downtown New York gallery.